[Warning! Warning! This content is a future event that may contain spoilers about the characters, their abilities or any other thing. Avoid reading this, at least until chapter 41]

-Soren's Carol, A list full of trouble-

"Uhhh... My head hurts. Ow! Just what happened right now?" Soren thought to himself for a bit, before he glanced at this surroundings. He noticed that he was laying on an old bed in a dark room full of chains and cuffs, but he wasn't bound in any way. The next he noticed was that there a skeletons down there, those skeletons were a mix of human bones and fish bones. 'Dead merfolk.' Soren thought with a hint of fear in his face.

"Damn, how did I managed to get myself into this mess?" Soren said angrily to himself before he started to retrace his steps and events that led up to this point.

...

-4 Hours Ago-

"Hey Soren, can you go to the market to grab me some stuff? Right now, me and Matt are rather busy making the meals for the Carol party and we barely have enough manpower to make these dishes." Rohan requested Soren who had some free time in his hands.

"Got it Rohan. W-What do you need me to buy?" Soren asked curiously while holding back his laughter from see the pink apron that Rohan was wearing.

"The list and the money is on the table, right next the pile of Fijouris." Rohan said while carrying a pot.

"Got it. See you guys later." Just as Soren was going to leave, he was suddenly interupted by Rohan who said:

"Don't forget to bring the change because I may have you go outsude to buy more stuff."

"Ok. Catch you guys in a bit." After that, Soren left Rohan's house alone.

As Soren was swimming through the streets, he saw many more food stalls than usual, due to the fact that it was Carol day. Carol day fell on the 25th of the 12th sun, which was equivelent to Christmas day for Soren, but for the other citizens, it was completely different event, since this was an event that was said to allow the dead to return to the realm of the living, hence it made Carol day a bit of a mix between Christmas and Mexico's event of the dead, but Soren wasn't aware of that fact. But that didn't stop him from doing what Rohan told him to do.

...

-2 Hours Later-

"Man, here I thought Black Fridays were a mess and then some, this one shows that it can be equally bad, or even worse." Soren said dejectedly while slightly rubbing his left shoulder with his right hand, while his left hand was holding a bag of fruits which he put immidiately in the little bag.

"At least that was the last thing to get on the list. Now, I can get to rest because my head feels like it is going to explode in a bit." Soren said with mix of relief and pain in his voice, while holding his head with his right hand. As he was swimming, he saw that the streets were kind of decorated, with strings that had snowflakes and what seemed to resemble souls, hanging from building to building, while of the kids were wearing skull masks with marks or wearing winter hats.

As he was making his way towards Rohan's house, a young merman with black hair and a purple tail charged at him before he left in a hurry. At that moment, Soren said annoyedly:

"Tsk. You could be a but caref- You son a- HEY! GET BACK HERE YOU BRAT!" At that moment, Soren realised that he was robbed from the merman with the purple tail and now he had his bag with the things Rohan wanted and also his personal belongings.

As the two of them were swimming through the streets, the two of them reached a dead end, with the young merman who was holding his bag, being stuck in a corner.

"Look kid. I'll overlook this just this once, because it's a big festival and everyone deserves to enjoy this day, so please, be a good boy for today and give me that back." Soren said with a calm and soft voice to the young merman who was holding onto the bag.

"..." The boy didn't answer back. At that moment, a man with black hair and a purple tail came from behind and smacked Soren on the back of his head with all of his force, which caused Soren to fall unconsious instateniously.

...

-Present Time-

"Well, that sucks. Just who was that guy who knocked me in the first place? I wish I could have seen his face. And, tsk. Just what is this place, some kind of cell? Ok, I just need to get out of here with my stuff. That's the plan for now." Soren to himself while making his next course of action.

Thankfully for Soren, the door wasn't locked and after he opened it, he saw that the hallway was suprisingly pretty clean for a place for holding captive people. After making his way stealthily through the hall, he saw that this place was actually someone's house. After a couple of moments of swimming around to find his stuff before he made like a banana and split, he suddeny came face to face with the thief from before and made eye contact for around 5 seconds before the boy shouted:

"Brother! Our guest woke up! Come- Mhhhmmm"

"Shhhh..." Soren put his hand on his mouth and said quietly:

"Quiet, you brat. Was it enough for you to steal my stuff, now you want to give me more trouble?"

"Relax young man, we won't be giving you any more trouble." At that moment, a deeper voice was heard, but it was still that of a young man.

The moment he turned around, he saw a man with black hair, a purple tail and blue eyes looking at him while holding a bag.

"I was waiting for you to wake up, since I overdid it with that hit from before." The young man said with a serious tone.

"You overdid? You litterally knocked my out. And for what? To cover for a thief?" Soren retorted angrily.

"Relax, I have already taken care of his punishment and by the seems of it, he hasn't completed it yet." He said that while looking at the boy with an angry look.

"Brother, aren't you being-" Just as the boy was saying that with an innocent voice after Soren let his hand from his mouth, the older brother exploded and said:

"Normally we should have whipped you at least 10 times by now, but because it's a festival today, we are being a bit more lenient."

"But I want to go to play as the dead heroes with the others." The younger brother retorted back.

"No, now go back to your room and continue your self-reflection until the time of the festival." The older brother ordered angrily.

"Fine... I'm sorry as well for stealing your things." The younger brother said apologetically before he started swimming towards his room.

"Wait. Sorry, but I'm not satisfied with this conclusion. First, can you please explain the reason you did that young man?" Soren ooked at the younger brother.

"I'll explain." The older brother explained.

"A little while ago, well before that incident happened, another incident happened and our stuff were stolen. I already informed the authorities and they have already caught the theif and already returned our stuff, but it was too late by the time my youger brother stole yours, assuming that he could get our stuff back by taking someone else's. So by the time I found you, I had assumed the worst and that you would beat my brother or even worse, hence I paniced and knocked you out." The older brother explained sincerely.

"Alright, but why did you put me in that dungeon room?" Soren still had a couple of questions.

"Actually that is an old guest room that we haven't cleaned in ages, hence it looked all dark and gloomy and the stuff in there are actually props for a play that I starred a couple months ago."

"I see. Thank you for filling in the blanks." Soren said seriously.

"Again, I'm very sorry for what happened. If I had done things better, things wouldn't get to this point." The older brother sincerely apologised.

"Fine, apology accepted. But I would like to change your younger brother's punishment a bit." Soren said with a slightly satisfied expression.

"What for? Shouldn't this be enough?" The older brother asked curiously while being slightly suprised.

"Well, I believe the young man should learn that things are earned though work and labor, so I believe that he should what labor truly is, instead of just wasting his day away while doing nothing." Soren smirked a bit.

"Ahhh... Now I see. Not bad. In reality, my dad gave that punishment in a hurry because he had his boss right now as a guest or something like that and I felt like that punishment was a bit too lenient." The older brother nodded in agreement while saying that.

"By the way, just out of curiousity, who is that boss?" Soren asked while he grabbed his bag that he found nearby.

"Well, my dad works at the churchas a bishop, so I think he has the Arch-Priestess as his boss, hence he didn't want her to see our mess, lest he wanted unnecessary trouble."

"The Arch-Priestess, huh..." Soren smiled at that point.

"Better not intrude on her day then. Tell your young brother that his punishment has been changed what we said before and send him to the door." Soren then added before he decided to leave.

"Ok then. Have you ever considered to be a nanny? You look like you are quite the professional." The older brother commented.

"Please don't. I already have enough on my plate already." Soren said slightly dejected.

...

-Lavenza's Carol, A mother and daughter's day out-

Lavenza right now was laying on the couch, while Rohan and Matt were cooking early and Soren was reading a book. She felt quite bored, since she didn't have anything to do today.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

Soren decided to put away the book and open the door. The person in front of the door was actually Laventhign, but in her incognito attire, the blue dancer outfit.

"Ah miss Lavent-" Just as Soren was going to say that out, Laventhign closed his moith with her soft hand and said quietly:

"Don't say my name out loud. Do you want to bring me trouble?"

"Sohhhyyy" Soren said that while his mouth was covered. After she left her hand off his mouth, Soren asked:

"So what brings you here Lavena?"

"I thought to check on you today. Just that, no other reason." Laventhign said that, but her eyes were looking at Lavenza who was laying on the couch while staring on the ceiling. Soren saw where she was looking and figured out her plan, that she wanted to have this day with her daughter.

"Lavenza, come here you have a friend of yours here to see you." Soren said with a happy expression on her face.

"Wait, don't tell her like-" Just as Laventhign was going to say that, Lavenza swam instantly towards the entrance and stopped saying what she was going to say.

"Why don'y you go outside with Lavena today Lavenza? I know that you are bored out of your mind and I can't just take you with me around town, since Rohan said that he will need my help today, so why don't you spend the day with her? She knows the city pretty well, so you shouldn't be having any trouble going through the streets and you will be able to see the festival for yourself as well. I know it won't start actually until 11 in the night, but you should see the town a bit. So what do you say?" Soren monologued for a bit before he asked.

"Kyuu~ Reny~! Kyuu~!" Lavenza was pretty excited.

"Then that settles it. Lavena, you are going to take Lavenza around the city to see the festivities and have fun in general. Make sure to take care of her, alright?" Soren looked at Laventhign while he said that.

"G-Got it. Come Lavenza." Laventhign said a bit nervously.

"Kyuu~!" Lavenza followed Laventhign with an excited expression on her face.

Laventhign couldn't believe that this plan actually worked. She still had another six plans to have Lavenza spend the day with her, so getting first try was a bit of shock, but it didn't cause any problems with her plans. She actually wanted to take Lavenza around the city to see the decorated streets, go the amusment park that was open during this time of the year and have a meal just the two of them.

"So... Uhhh... How do you usually spend your day Lavenza?" Laventhign asked a bit nervously while trying to initiate a conversation.

"Kyuu~! Kyuu~ Kyuu~... Kyuu~." Lavenza said that while doing some random motions.

'I don't we can do much conversation with you talking like that.' Laventhign thought to herself before she said:

"I see. Well, today we will spend the day swimming around the town before we go to the Sea Star Park and have fun at the amusment park and then we will go eat at a good restaurant that I know nearby." Laventhign explained to Lavenza happily.

"Kyuu~!" Lavenza was excited for today.

The two of them spend at least a couple of hours swimming through the decorated streets. They saw quite a few decorations, such as strings with snowflakes and soul-like decorations, wooden mask with markings and even some skeleton costumes that some of the children were wearing. As the two of them were swimming, Lavenza decided to try one of the skeleton masks on Laventhign just as a harmless prank, but she felt like she would faint from Lavenza's cuteness and decided to get another mask that looked cute to her. Lavenza's mask looked like a kitten's mask with heart marks on the sides, while Laventhign's was a fish mask with fins on its ears and squiggly lines all over it.

Their next destination was the Sea Star Park where the amusment park was. It had all kinds of game stalls, with some of them being dart stalls, other being ball stalls as well as others. The two of them spent around an hour or so playing the games, with both Lavenza and Laventhign winning a plushie each. Lavenza's plushie was a cute white jellyfish with a cute and goofy face, while Laventhign's was a blue octopus with googly eyes.

After having fun in the amusment park, the two of them made their way towards one of the restaurants to eat their lunch. The restaurant was called "White Beach" and it was actually one of the better restaurants in Crystalia City where the nobles ate quite often, so seeing a dancer with a sea serpent entering the building, irked quite a bit the nobles who where already there. Of course, Laventhign and Lavenza didn't care since they came to eat and then they would leave immidiately.

"Young man, we would like to order some of the food in the catalogue. We would these things here and..."

After Laventhign put the order, the two of them waited for their food to come on one of the tables near the door. As they were waiting, one of the customers went to their table and said arrogantly:

"Hey honey. Would you like to spend the day with a cool guy guy here, instead with a little bug?"

Laventhign was pretty pissed off, but because she didn't want to show her aggresive side to Lavenza, she instead said calmly while holding her anger:

"How about you go become hot before you decide to try to be cool?"

"Oooooooooooo..." Some of the customers said when they heard that retort from the woman. The man was pretty furious and then slammed his hands on the table and said angrily:

"Look here you bitch. I'm being nice enough to you so you can spend the night with me, but it seems like you need some discipline instead. Now be good before we reach that point."

Lavenza now was completely furious and was about to explode and once she saw Lavenza looking at this jerk with a murderous stare, she realised that Lavenza also hates this guy's guts. The next thing that happened suprised all the customers, the arrogant man was pinned on the table by Laventhign with one hand only.

"Lavenza, do you want learn how to deal with these kinds of guys?" Laventhign said with a happy and murderous expression on her face.

"Kyuu~..." Lavenza was also barely holding back from trying to rip this guy's throat off his neck.

"First you pin the b*stard down like this. Then, you need to follow along with me on this." At that moment, Laventhign started making a water ball with her free hand and once Lavenza saw that, she also started charging her water ball as well.

"Wait, w-what are you going to do?" The arrogant man said while being afraid of what he was seeing in front of him.

"We do this." At that moment, Laventhign lifted the arrogant guy, the. she and Lavenza launched their water balls at his face which then launched him towards the door and then outside the restaurant.

"Anyone else?" Laventhign said angrily.

"Nothing." One of the nobles said after all of them turned their heads away.

After that entire mess, the waiter came with their food and saw that the atmosphere was colder that usual, but he still did his job. Once the two of them ate their lunch, Laventhign paid with a few silver coins and then left with Lavenza after feeling satified with not only a great meal, but also beating the crap out of an arrogant noble.

"So how was your outing today Lavenza?" Laventhign asked happily.l while the two fo them were swimming slowly through the streets

"Kyuu~ Kyuu~" Lavenza said extremely happy.

Laventhign was very happy she could spend a day with her long-lost daughter and didn't want to end this day, but she knew that she would have to part ways with her soon enough, so she decided to take Lavenza somewhere special before it was time to part with her.

Their next destination this time, was another park, Fallen Hill Park, a park which is well known for a giant coral tree in the middle of it, it also a very well known romantic spot for yoing couples to have their dates. Once they reached the park, they saw a bunch of couples sitting, swimming or having a picnic, so it was a bit unusual to see a woman all by herself. Their destination was the giant coral tree and once they made it there, Laventhign sat down and took out a picture from her tiny bag.

"Do you mind if I tell you a story Lavenza?" Laventhign asked seriously.

"Kyuu~." Lavenza nodded

"When I was young, I had a husband. At the time I was around 80 or 90, which for me was young adulthood, but then, me and my husband were happy at the time and believe it or not, I also had a daughter. At the time she wasn't born, she was still it my belly, but I could feel it that she was a strong and healthy girl. Anyways, back then, we were still at war and there were many who wanted to attack us, malevolent forces, evil groups, you name it. Of course, my husband died during those battles and my unborn daughter followed shortly after. Ever since then, I have spent my days mourning about them and I still do even to this day and on this day specifically, I make my husband's favourite clam buns so he can eat them whenever he returns. Unfortunately, I haven't seen my husband come in this day, despite the fact that all the dead come in this particular day. My daughter also never came, but in a way, I feel like you are pretty similar to her. Funny isn't it?" Laventhign monologued for a little while.

"Kyuu~..." Lavenza felt sad after hearing Laventhign's story.

"Anyways, the reasonwe came here was to see my husband for a bit, since this is his final resting place." At that moment, Laventhign took out a plate with buns amd put it in front of the tree before she started praying for a bit.

"I hope you are still watching, my hubby." Laventhign said quietly.

"Let's take you home now." After Laventhign said that, the two of them left Fallen Hill Park and made their way towards Rohan's home.

*knock* *knock* *knock*

"Soren have you- Oh, you are Soren's friend, right?" Rohan opened the door and saw Laventhign and Lavenza.

"We finished our day out, so I decided to return her back home. By the seems of it, Soren is not here, right?" Laventhign asked.

"I had him go outfor an errand but he still hasn't returned." Rohan explained.

"I see. Then, I guess this is farewell for now Lavenza, but I promise I will see you again someday." Laventhign said that while feeling slightly tearful.

"Kyuu~..." Lavenza also shed a tear.

"Take care." After that, Laventhign left Rohan's house.

"Hey, did you get attached to her already? If Soren hears that, he won't stop talking about it. Anyways, think you can help me up with the food?" Rohan tried to console Lavenza.

"Kyuu~." Lavenza wiped her tear and then went with Rohan.

...

As Laventhign was making her way to her quarters, a man with black hair and a purple tail appeared in front of her anf said:

"What brings you here Arch-Priestess?"

"Nothing Christoph, just an outing with one of my children." Laventhign answered back with a smile on her face.